


Uneven Odds

by orphan_account



Category: Everlark - Fandom, Katniss and peeta - Fandom, The Hunger Games, peeta and katniss - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Finnick Odair - Freeform, alma coin - Freeform, gale hawthorne - Freeform, glimmer - Freeform, johanna mason - Freeform, katniss everdeen - Freeform, peeta mellark - Freeform, primrose everdeen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 10:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5582353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm not telling you about this, Peeta."<br/>--<br/>Apartment 354a is the most scariest apartment in the complex, earning its holed walls and wet carpets. Every now and then it has its own blackout...not the best place for Katniss Everdeen, a twenty three year old to stay in alone with her overthinking mind. And no matter how much her Guy-Friend doesn't like it, she needs a roommate to help with it. He especially doesn't like it when Peeta Mellark walks through the door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"What happened to you?" Katniss looked through her naughty clumps of hair at her friend. 

"I couldn't sleep." She answered Johanna in a raspy voice; it took a lot of effort to talk. 

"For how many days?" She let out a small laugh. "To me it seems like it's been weeks." 

"That is actually quite accurate." Katniss sipped her coffee that was in front of her and placed it back on the table. "I am a wreck." 

"Yeah you are. Why not just get a roommate?" 

"I'm not good with girls as roommates. Remember Cashmere?  And Gale would never approve of a guy living with me."

"That's what's holding you back? Gale? He's not your boyfriend, you know. You can do whatever you want."

"I doubt that feeling is mutural, Jo. He would kill me if he even sees my brother come through that apartment door. Never mind a guy." Johanna fell back in her chair with a sigh, but redeemed her focus to her friend quickly. 

"Wait--you have a brother?"

"No."

"Kat, this guy is not your boyfriend. He can't tell you what you can do. And if you tell him that and he still does it, he can suck my ass." Katniss raised her eyebrows. 

"I'm not kidding. That guy friend you got there is hella fine." She let out a large exhale. 

"Do you really think I should?"

"Given that's you haven't slept in over a month and walking on coffee, yeah, you should." Katniss sighed heavily before turning back to her friend. 

"Okay, fine. I already have someone lined up. Just...don't make a big deal, okay?"

"Make a big deal about what? That you're getting a roommate? Ah, please."

"No, that the only person willing to live in that apartment is Peeta Mellark."

"What?!" Jo plasters an evil grin on her face. 

"Please don't make a big deal about this, please, please, please. You promised not to."

"I didn't promise you anything. Seriously?! Out of all the dudes freshly out of college and probably are not rapists, you chose him? The high school asshole?"

"Well...he chose me, to be accurate..."

"I don't care. I'm just setting my mind on how you can get that offer."

"He noticed me in the laundry room, and said hi. But then he noticed the under eye circles, assumed out loud I had a rough night, blah blah blah..."

"No, not blah blah blah! Who asked?! C'mon, Kat! I need to know the story before you get into detail of the sex!"

"Jo--what--we--no...I just brought up the fact that I needed a roommate, not implying that I wanted him, but you know...he offered to sign up, since he already lives in the complex and all, and I told him if give him a call." 

"How long ago was this?"

"Like, two weeks i guess."

"C'mon girl! That could've been two weeks of sleep for you. Go call him now!"

"I'll do it later. Bye, Jo. I need to get to work."

"Like that?"

"No, that's why I'm leaving two hours early."

"Okay, well I hope you have fun at the archery training place. Or whatever you do these days."

"Thanks, Jo. I'll see you later."

"Yep. Laters."

\:\~/:/

She didn't know why she was trembling. 

It was just a phone call, right?

No, it was a phone to officiate the permission for the biggest jackass in the whole complex to live in her apartment. With her, she may add. 

Taking a deep breath, Katniss decided to get it over with and quickly lowered her thumb on his name. She put the phone up to her ear and waited two rings. 

"Hi, this Katniss. Everdeen. I--"

"I'll start packing. When should I come? Tomorrow morning?" 

"What? How do you know I was going to say you can?"

"Well, if you were going to say no, you would've called me within a week. After three, I gather you put a lot of thought into it and by now you wouldn't call me at all. Also, the tone of your voice was revealing as well."

"O-okay. See you tomorrow, at 2, then."

"See you tomorrow at 2."


	2. Chapter One

Peeta had a lot of boxes. 

In Katniss's case, at least. Needing to take four trips from his sold apartment to hers with help of a brother counted in her mind. Especially when his brother was constantly making jokes on which price of furniture they were to have sex on, and betting his brother how long it would be until it happens. Whilst making yearning looks at Katniss, who watched the siblings from the side with her arms crossed. 

One of his bedroom's walls were lined with his things. Peeta also stacked the fridge with food (in which she wouldn't complain if 60% wasn't beer) that he still had in his old one. He didn't complain about the creepy walls, so she didn't mention the mysterious power outages the apartment had. 

Once his brother introduced himself as Cato Mellark and left, Katniss explained to Peeta her work schedules, gave him a key, and told him the wifi password. He requested to change it because it was "too long and confusing for his friends" and made her change it to Peeta's Apartment with a huff. 

He eventually locked himself in his new room after an hour, finally leering Katniss relax in her own. 

This was not going to work. 

She could already tell they were the polar opposite-- Katniss liked to kept it simple, modern. His idea of decor was plastering the walls with hockey merchandise and pictures of the places he traveled. 

(Although she did appreciate the beautiful mountains and sunsets, as well as that he was a New Jersey Rangers fan.)

And then the feeling that was most certain to Katniss's concern mutual: they both hated eachother. 

They always have. Their family's were rivals when it came to business, even though they were in the complete different category from eachother. It all started out in kindergarten, when Peeta stole Katniss's cupcake eraser, to high school graduation, when she purposely stained his graduation gown. Four years later, she still owned his revenge...and he now had a perfect shot at doing so. 

Not to mention that from previous experiences that he's loud, too much for her liking. 

She knew in about two months this place would be destroyed. He was defiantly planning a party with how much beer he had. Two six packs loading up half of her refrigerator was utterly questionable. 

I need a roommate. She kept repeating to her self. 

With a sigh she fell into her bed. Never mind the apartment, Katniss herself would be destroyed by July.

Her phone buzzed on her pillow, showing a text from Johanna. 

[from] Jo: hey weirdo, how's Mellark doing?

[to] Jo: ugh, I don't know how I'm going to deal with him already. 

[from] Jo: give him a night. Does Gale know? 

[to] Jo: nope. I'm not planning on telling either. 

[from] Jo: by what? Throwing an invisibility cloak over him whenever Gale comes over? That's not gonna work, kat. 

[to] Jo: then I better make it. 

She shut her phone off, not wanting to go through the reasons. Katniss tossed it to the other side of the bed and looked around her room. Her walls were a shade of gray, dark and cozy. They were mostly plain besides the few picture frames of her with Johanna and Annie and the window behind her bed's head board. There was a desk in the right corner that had a spinning chair to go with it. On the surface was placed a picture frame of her sister, a makeshift pen holder that she doesn't even remember where she got it, and her laptop that Katniss was given as a Christmas present last December. She had a dresser in the opposite corner with a crusty mirror beside it. There was a  nightstand on each side her bed, each holding a small lamp that sent an extra spark of light in her room. 

Katniss let her self fall lazily on the bed behind her. She stretched her arms and legs in opposite directions and enjoyed the short few moments of silence before a certain blonde barged in.

"Hey, Kat-- can I call you Kat? I'm going to call you Kat. I'm making Mac 'n Cheese." Before she even had time to agree, he was bouncing back down the hallway, leaving her door open. 

So he's that kind of guy. 

She decided to not do anything, just stay in the one spot stretching her limbs and squinting her eyes at the ceiling. She hated the feeling of how the position forced her to suck her torso in, making her ribs more visible under the skin. She always felt anorexic like that, taking it back to those horrid days as a teenager when she was on the brisk of the disorder.

The silent stillness of the apartment was accompanied by Peetas feet plopping against the kitchens tile and the stove's lighter ticking. She heard a few clashes of pans before it going silent, the noise continuing as he filled it with water. a small clatter was sounded as he placed it on the stove. 

Soon the apartment was filled with a scent of Mac 'n Cheese, making a taste and craving linger in katniss's mouth for the food. She decided to get up after contempting weather to risk it, her stomach growling proving her to agree. She found Peeta in the kitchen with a bowl full of the pasta. Katniss made her way over to her cabinet full of the others and then walked over to the stove, where the pan was. 

An empty pan. 

"Where's the rest?" She asked, turning to Peeta. 

"Oh, were you expecting some? Sorry, uh I was just telling you I was making my lunch. There's no way in between Heaven and Hell I'd make some for you, too."

It hurt holding her comments back, but she knew being nice was the only way he was paying that month's rent. 

So she kept repeating it to herself. 

She needs a roommate.


	3. Chapter Two

Deep breaths were needed very often. 

At breakfast, especially the last week, when she went to get a poptart and found there were none left. 

She had just gotten them the day before. 

How does one eat sixteen pop-tarts in 32 hours? Even if they were the s'mores, he needed a cash award for that. 

And then move out. 

Katniss knew she needed a roommate, she knew that after this, there would be no other option to get sleeping pills or move in with her father.

He wasn't that bad. Her father, meaning. When she was about ten, her mom left. She still doesn't know exactly why, but understood she was sick and couldn't take anything anymore. Katniss still hated the fact that one year later she and her 5 year old sister had to stand in front of their mother's found dead body, without their father by their side. No, he was in his office, he said. He had too much work to attend a "Party for Dead People", he said. 

He was always working. Still is, but this time accompanied by his beautiful, healthy fiancé next to him. He made money after meeting her. When Katniss and Prim were little, it seemed like he was volunteering. He was out at work all day, in his office all day, "too busy" to make them lunch, to buy food, even, and yet no money came out of it. They were left scrambling for food. For clothes. 

Thankfully, Prim was much better at making friends than Katniss, and her friends' parents willingly gave them old and new clothes that didn't fit. Katniss wasn't so lucky, but she was able to coordinate a couple outfits with the clothes Johanna and Annie gave her in her preteen years, when she was too big to share clothes with Prim but too young for a job. 

Once she was fourteen things got a little easier, though. She was able to get a job after school at the local florist after school for $80 a week. It wasn't much, but she found a way to coordinate, putting aside half of it for savings and using the other for that week's food. She used the extra for clothes, the cheap Wal-Mart kind. Any extra money they had they put away for later, either college or class trips if they were lucky. Both sisters knew going to college was out of the question, but they liked to pretend, although it actually went towards the rent. 

Katniss had thought of confronting Peeta about getting his own food, but the time never seemed right. Sure, it was a simple question, but her anxiety thought differently. 

So she was cursed to look upon the storage going down every day.   
\----  
Katniss was hazed out of sleep. She was able to get rest these past few nights, knowing that Peeta stayed up late and the floors creaking was him. But he never stayed up until 4:09 a.m. Never. 

She was a very light sleeper, and these thin walls didn't do their jobs to protect the sound of Peeta's bed on the other side as something was moving. He hadn't brought a girl home since the second night he was living with her, and that was two weeks ago. Something must've been up. She heard his door slowly creak open and the wary footsteps make way down the hall. She left her door open a slight for cool air to circulate in and out. She couldn't see through the dark and so kept her eyes closed, but the feeling of someone's eyes on her exploited. 

His breath made volume as as he exhaled a sigh that bounced off her door. She waited about two minutes after he left to get up herself to see what was actually going on.

Her wane eyes barley succeeded to stay open when she made her way out of her bed and through the hallway, past the bathroom. She suddenly stopped when she saw his body's shadow, at the island drinking something. The room didn't have much light, none really, besides the moons glow through the windows of the connected living room. The blue shine on his profile disguised his eyes as a darker blue than she's known throughout the twelve years she attended school with him. 

He stared in front of him, slowly raising the cup to his mouth and ejecting it, followed by licking his lips. 

"What are you doing up?" He was sullen at her question, telling her he knew well of her presence. He looked at her with sad eyes that almost broke her, used of seeing the wild one that always seems to be smiling. He took his face into his hands and rubbed his temples. 

"I shouldn't have woken you up." He murmured. 

"That wasn't what I was asking." 

"I just had a bad dream. Go back to bed." 

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Go back to bed." His answer came too soon for comfort. She didn't bother, though. His problems were his own. 

\----

But she couldn't shake the fact, for some reason. The look in his eyes wasn't the same he usually had. He usually was. Laying awake at five a.m., desperately needing rest for her long work day ahead of her, she was distracted by the sympathetic thoughts for Peeta fucking Mellark. 

He ate all of her food.

Her senses were brought back due to the alarm clock honking its brains out. 

Did she really just think about him for thirty minutes straight?

Her hand was heavily slammed onto the snooze button before she got up. Grabbing her robe from the back of her door, she put it on and started to the kitchen for coffee. 

Oh shit. 

The tension was stinging her already. She wasn't sure what version it was, but gods, it was surly uncomfortable. 

She contemplated on just staying in her room, but she knew it wasn't an option at this point. He had probably heard her door open and close. 

So she walked down the hallway to the kitchen. It looks like he had never left from the two hours prior, sitting in the same spot. But his cup was no where insight. The poptart box was on the table to anyone's surprise. Peeta was munching on two of them with the packaging in front of him. His hair was much more messy than it was at four a.m. And her fingers tingled at the thought of how many times he had run his hands through it. 

Katniss made her way over to the coffee machine. She opened the cabinet above her for the beans. Breakfast was always awkward in the apartment, but never that quiet. 

It's like he told me the biggest secret he's ever had. She thought.

The coffee machines grinding let some life or sound into the rooms, and it felt like music to her ears. He had never been as quiet as he was then and it was too tensematic to bear. 

When the coffee beeped, signaling it was ready, she fumbled for the mug and pressed the release button quickly, aching to get out of the quietness that was suffocating her brain. 

She felt Peeta's eyes on her as she hurried back to her room to have her coffee in there. On any other day, she would have coffee on the edge of the sofa reading a book. He would be at the other end watching T.V. It became a habit, and she couldn't really imagine not having him on the other side, or reading a book with T.V. Character voices in the background. 

Katniss put her coffee on her dresser and grabbed her work clothes from her closet. She worked at a summer camp, director of archery, but also helped with the other stuff as well. it was still only July, unfortunately and she still had the whole summer in blasted heat. During the winter the program let the kids continue the activities with a separate tuition payment. She had off the three months of September, January and June as in between seasons. She enjoyed her job most of the time, and it paid well. That was really what mattered. 

She threw her clothes on and hair into her pony. She realized her mood was off today, and yet didn't care. 

Her coffee sat still warm by the time she finished putting limited makeup on. She previously mentally planned to grab a poptart package for breakfast, but lost her appetite while getting ready some how. The thought of eating made her sick for whatever reason then, but she told herself to not worry about it and redeem at lunch. 

Katniss took a sip of her coffee before walking back through the hall and dumping it in the sink. She took her keys from on top of the fridge and turned to open the door. 

"Youre not going to eat anything?" She looked at him. Peeta's expression lacked concern but more confusion. He had a right to be confused; she had always ate breakfast. 

She shook her head and proceeded to open the door she started to close it, and right before it was sealed. She may have or not've heard a soft "I'm sorry".


	4. Chapter Three

Katniss hated when your fears became reality.

She'd be lying if she said she hadn't thought about Peeta all day-- he was in the back of her mind ever since she left the apartment.

And she absolutely hated it.

It took her mind off work. She was snapped out of oblivion numerous times by her protégés. When Glimmer, Katniss's co-worker, gave her a confused look on the fourth time, she did a quick tug to her earlobe, a sense of sign language they had made up to know when to talk to each other.

Katniss wasn't very fond with Glimmer, always thought she acted a little more important then she really was as a summer camp special defense trainer. But she also wasn't the best at making friends, nor keeping them. The only true one she had was Johanna, just because she was the only other student in the support group when her mom had died. They kind of grew on each other from there. Katniss was also friends with this girl Madge back in elementary school.   
(But for some reason, she and her brother, Marvel, moved away to live with their aunt in England, according to her mother. She still remembered Madge, though. She had left so suddenly, at school one day and gone the next. No one had time to say goodbye to her perfectly curled, blonde ringlets. Nor her doll-like face and button nose. It was hard to think people forgot.)

Glimmer was basically the only trainer at the camp that was the same age as Katniss, so she used it to her advantage.

She was pretty sure glimmer thought of them as friends. The year before, glimmer had purchased Katniss a laptop, the newest MacBook, to be specific. When Katniss refused to take it (mostly because taking it would mean that she'd have to buy glimmer something with equal value, in which she had no money nor interest in), Glimmer forced it in her hands with an old timer assurance of a "That's what friends are for" speech before smiling and leaving. Over the next couple of days, Katniss asked everyone she knew for coupons for Wal-Mart, hoping she could get enough to buy glimmer a T.V. with a reasonable price.

She had been dazed off into oblivion all day, and had to be shaken atleast two times by Glimmer(thank god it was glimmer. If Alma saw her off focus, her career would be gone)   
During morning lessons and a total of five during their forty-five-minute lunch break. Glimmer would keep her eyes on Katniss through her eyelashes when eating, probably trying to see what was making her out of tune as much as she was that day.

"What's up with you today?"

The question took her by surprise, giving a jump to her system. Katniss looked up quickly from her food (untouched, too. She had lost her appetite for breakfast and lunch, it seemed.)

"Huh?"

"You heard me, Katniss. You haven't been this off focus since Prim said she wanted to go to prom."

"Oh, it's nothing. I just am thinking."

"Not buying it."

"That's the answer."

"You think everyday, Kat. A little too much, I should say, but that's a conversation for another time. This kind of thinking is different. You never are this distracted from your job because of a thought. Thank god Alma is at the docks today, or you would've been gone. But what I'm getting is a familiar sense...like what is clouding up your mind...its...a..."

Katniss rolled her eyes, hopefully hidden enough under her hair. Glimmer talked way-y too much, and that was no opinion, but a proven fact. You could've asked anyone at the camp, even the dear lunch server, Sae, and she would disapprovingly shake her head.

She took a quick glance at glimmer, easily vexed with the exaggerated thinking face she had going on. It suddenly all went blank, her smile dropping, and yet her eyes being filled with cheer.

"A boy!" Her smile unfortunately reappeared, making katniss's cheek muscles sore for how big it was "Oh my...Katniss Everdeen! Distracted! By a boy!" She shook her head, still with a tight smile, at Katniss who remained sober from amusement. "Wow. Ah, what a time...to be alive."

Katniss continued to play around with her food.

"Well, don't leave me hanging, dumbo! What's his name? What does he look like—Oi! What's your ship name? Never mind—don't tell me. I need to figure that out of my own original idea. I already ship it. God, bless God, actually. Bless God and Mary and Joseph! A boy!"

Her ears were ringing.

She almost looked down to check for restraints on her ankles, confused at her self as to how she was staying put.

"Katniss! Tell me the details!" What time was it?

She sneaked at the clock to the right of her Reading 1:20. She still had ten minutes so there was no way she would leave the conversation alive. _May as well get on with it_ , she thought.

"Peeta." His name stung her tongue. She's been saying the name all day, it was almost loosen at that point. The weird thing was that...it was in her thoughts. Not ever would she voluntarily speak of his name.

"What? Kat, name. We aren't playing 'Avocado, Avocado. And the category certainly isn't bread."

She almost yelled at her that her name was fucking glimmer rose, before realizing that would be a form of defense for Peeta. Katniss held it back.

"Not "pita", as in bread. Peeta. Mellark. From high school." An auiible gasp was sounded, once again exaggerated.

"I knew it would end up this way! I knew it was a Love-Hate relationship! Oi! I need to call clove—I'm getting fifty bucks!" Before Katniss could protest, glimmer was down the hall, turning into the girls restroom. Katniss was not going in there to explain what really happened—mostly because she still didn't know herself.

|•|

She sat in her car. Katniss's phone was almost out of battery, but she refused to go face the tension that was in the apartment. Procrastinating was one of her strong suits, and usually came handy in the situations like the current. When the shut down screen showed her it was out of battery, she reached for her book for her next distraction. Her stomach declined it with a rumble.

She knew she should of eaten that morning. She's skipped breakfast enough times to realize lunch alone didn't last her after five. Katniss considered maybe running down to the diner down town before remembering that she was broke. Mentally preparing herself, she made her way out of the car.

She gave the by-passing residents tight, almost mandatory smiles on her way to the stairs. Usually, like when she had groceries, Katniss would mentally curse the landlord for not fixing the elevator. But that day, taking the stairs would be her choice anyway.

Soon enough the door was in front of her. Katniss took time going to the apartment—the most she ever has. She turned back to check their mail three times, used the public bathroom, and admired the paintings on the wall on her walk down the hallway in stead of digging through her purse for the keys.

The sound of the tumblers fell into place snapped, and the door opened. She hadn't realized she was closing her eyes and holding her breath before she came to look and it was black, so she opened them. Katniss exhaled when she saw the kitchen and living room appeared empty.

She hung up her bag and went straight the the kitchen cabinet on her left, which held all of her quick meals. They were basically the only things she knew how to make other than breakfast foods and occasionally hot dogs, so that was all she ate; Peeta had made it clear that the only thing they would help each other with was the bills, even if he worked at a bakery an restaurant.

Katniss took out some Ramen, and following the memorized instructions she started boiling the water. She knew Peeta was home by the clear signs of his shoes thrown around the foyer, like he always did. Katniss kept her shoes in the closet of her room, but Peetas identification of 'putting away' was presented by kicking them into a cluttered pile by the door and jumping on their--her couch to watch T.V. before he made himself enough dinner for one person. Katniss would always have to grab something extra in the middle of the night after the scent seeping under her doors of his well-cooked-and-probably-much-healthier-than-her-meals dinner and snacks, but always made sure he never knew.

Katniss was almost sure he wasn't home. He usually would be at the island on his phone when she came home, or even throwing a small ball and catching it while reclined on the couch. Her thought was demolished as soon as the ticking of the stove reacted, the one when it says the oven is being lit, and she heard a ruffle of blankets and his mattress squeaking. Her gaze remained down, absent-mindedly biting her lip when she heard his rushed footsteps and the door to his room swing open.

"Hey, wait." He jogged ( _jogged_ ) down their hallway connecting the bedrooms and bathroom from the living room and kitchen. Katniss looked up, a meager confusion upon her countenance. "I uh, have uh, well, I made Penè and vodka sauce, Ann was going to come over but she bailed. I was going to save the rest for tomorrow, but Glimmer texted me that you didn't really eat lunch. Want some? I don't want you filling an empty stomach with cheap pasta and shitty flavoring." She furrowed her eyebrows, getting more confused. Was it some sort of artifice? Was he going to poison her? He was open to, since she still didn't pay revenge since graduation.

(She had thought, though, that he had moved in purposely to have that his revenge by itself, because it was certainly working greatly.)

He smiled at her expression.

"Here, I'll heat it up. I made cheese buns, too. Annie likes them." Peetas smile remained as he made his way to the refrigerator with a chuckle. Katniss still hadnt said a word yet, and wasn't planning to.

Katniss made her way around the island to sit. The mail was on the table, so she skimmed through it; bills, more bills, Peeta's gym membership insurance plan...all the usual stuff. What caught her eye was a pink envelope, one you'd think that it was bought at Hallmark. It was decorated with delicate handwriting only to be indemnified as her sister's.

Prim was starting college that August, and was nothing but anxious. It was proven for a fact that she was definitely over thinking everything. When it was time for college for Katniss, the family clearly did not have any money. Her father was still kind of in oblivion. He was starting to get around, get money, but it took him two years more to live again. She still remembers that one night, she was reading a textbook at the kitchen table (although she could not go to college, she was able to work extra to pay for two textbooks. She studied from them instead, and it did do her a little extra good now.) when he walked in, a woman looking a tad too young for him hooked at his hip. His smile was bright, joyful even. He had introduced her as Caddie, a name Katniss still greets at holidays. Ever since then, he had started working again and making an actual living out of it. By the time Prim was ready for college, he had made enough money as an accountant. It was miraculous, but Prim didn't mind going to Community college even if her dream was to be a doctor.

Katniss considered opening it there and in front of Peeta, but there was no doubt that he would question what it was. Instead she ran her finger tips over the ink of her sisters handwriting once more before putti g it in her mail pile.

Peeta turned around not but a second after with a steaming bowl of Pennè and vodka sauce. He set it in front of her on a placemat before grabbing a fork and napkin for her.

_What the hell?_

This was by far the nicest gesture he had ever done to her since, well, ever. It left her a little taking back that it took him literally two decades to do so.

"Thanks," she whispered under her breath.

"Are you okay?" He braced his weight by him arms on the island, his eyebrows a bit furrowed. She found sudden interest to the pot of water behind him.

"Yeah, why would you think otherwise?"

"Well, for one, you hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch, left almost an hour early this morning and arrived forty five minutes late home."

Home. That word stung through her ears. This was not his house, not his _home_. It was hers, she found it and bought it, it was hers, not his. Peeta was just accompanying her—forcefully, of course.

"I went out for breakfast with Johanna." He raised his eyebrows at her, clearly not buying it. She didn't accuse of him, though, once she glanced at her plate to see shed eaten atleast a third already. Katniss released a huff in defeat.

"I'm serious. I'm not talking about well emotionally wise, well, to a point really, but physically, do you feel okay?"

"I told you, yeah, I am completely fine."

"Kat."

"Don't call me that." He became generally confused.

"Why not?"

"Only my friends call me that. We are the polar opposite."

"Which direction are you referring to?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you see, there are two different directions you can point at. Opposite as in enemies, or, you know...lovers." She really had wished she had a drink so she would be able to dramatically spit it at him.

"Is that even a valid question?"

"Referring to how I still don't know the answer, it's ought to be."

"Enemies, if you've lost memory of our childhood, in which you clearly had."

"You think we as roommates are enemies?"

"It's a valid fact Peeta. I'll recite our relationship during our younger years if you need refreshing."

"Um, well, enjoy your dinner, I guess. I uh, need to make a call."

She watched as he quietly left the room, nothing to his expression left besides his lip being slightly bit as he disappeared into the hallways darkness (they needed a lamp or something desperately).

She returned to eating after watching him go, which, quite frankly, was the best meal she had had since Easter. 


End file.
